section.io is the only content delivery platform specifically designed to accelerate, scale and secure web sites with the development lifecycle in mind. But before we get to why this is so important, you must understand how CDNs came about, what problems they were created to solve, and why they traditionally have stood far apart from the development cycle.

In 2005 Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux, began working on a version control system that would soon revolutionize the way developers collaborated. Realizing that proprietary source control management systems were not sufficient to achieve what Torvalds needed, he decided to design his own that would meet his needs.

One of the most common questions we are asked at section.io is “how long does it take to (select your favourite term) “clear”, “purge”, “evict”, or “ban” an item the cache?” Our answer has been “near real time” as we built section.io to instantly purge cache globally.

Containerization breaks applications into components which can easily be deployed and scaled, bringing many benefits to software development. The flexibility containerization brings fits well with modern application development practices and DevOps principles, and has become popular with the growth of platforms including Docker and Kubernetes.

Summary of security issue raised
In the past few days, vulnerability researchers at Google discovered Cloudflare’s reverse proxies were dumping uninitialized memory into their outputs, opening up websites that use Cloudflare to data leaks. This data included cookies, passwords, encryption keys, and even user’s private data from large sites that use Cloudflare.

It’s no secret that Akamai is the elephant in the room in any conversation regarding CDNs. It is the grandfather of the industry, and pioneered the art of bringing content closer to end users to improve browsing experience for people all around the world. Their first-mover advantage allowed Akamai to build an infrastructure still unmatched in size and scale by any of their competitors.

For nearly 20 years, use of Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) has been a smart way to deliver web traffic. CDNs promise faster, more secure and more scalable web applications. However, modern software development practices and the definition of networks and infrastructure using a software-centric approach are making legacy CDNs increasingly less relevant. “Software is eating the world” and CDNs have forgotten to come to the table.

Last month we presented a webinar with our partner Magento on website performance and its impact on revenue. Website performance is a crucial element of any website’s success and is particularly important for ecommerce sites who rely on the speed of their website to convert customers, encourage larger cart sizes, and ultimately gain more revenue.

We all come across website errors at some point, and every website out there has inevitably experienced their share of 404 and 500 status codes, which are shown when a URL is not found either due to their typo or a broken link (404), and when there is a general server error (500).

A DDoS attack is a distributed denial of service attack. This means that an attack is coming from multiple places with a high volume of requests with the intent to bring your site down. With section.io we offer a few different levels of DDoS protection to our customers in the event of an attack.

One of the most remarkable things about the CDN market in the 20 years since Akamai launched the first Content Delivery Network is how little attention has been paid to the technology these companies are built on. When you consider the function they serve, it is somewhat understandable. Your website is slow, you pay for a CDN and suddenly it is faster. You don’t really care how it works as long as you get the desired result.

Content Delivery Networks can often seem shrouded in mystery: They appear on countless lists as one of the top ways to improve website performance, and there are many Content Deliver Network companies globally, but the basics of how CDNs actually accomplish all that they promise (such as improved website speed, ability to handle more visitors, and protection from attacks) are still unknown to many.

Content Delivery Networks are usually thought of for their benefits - they bring content closer to global end-users, reduce stress on origin servers, and add caching and security features that speed up websites and protect them from malicious traffic.

This week, section.io is at the DeFrag Conference in Broomfield, Colorado, a technology conference that focuses on those at the core of every technology company: developers. section.io was founded by developers, for developers, and was built out of a frustration with the way Content Delivery Networks make it difficult for developers to easily drive and test the performance and security tools CDNs offer. At DeFrag we are launching our “Free YXORP” campaign, a movement to unleash the power of reverse proxies, which have long been held captive by Content Delivery Networks.

A common question in the Content Delivery World and one that we at section.io hear a lot is “How many PoPs does my website need?” To answer this question, first we will go into the background of CDN PoPs and why they were first utilized.

We’re pleased the introduce the section.io Community Forum, where section.io users and those looking for information about Content Delivery Networks, Varnish Cache, and general website performance and security enhancements can post and answer questions. Anyone can read questions by others on the Community Forum, and to ask your own questions sign up for a free section.io account.

We previously went through the fundamentals of caching, what it is, why it’s important for faster web pages, better SEO, and reduced server costs, and what the differences are between a browser cache and a cache installed on a web server. Now we’ll go through some information on what type of content is typically cached, how Content Delivery Networks or CDNs are related to caching, and some tools to cache your own web data and improve the performance of your website.

When I first started to tell people about my new job with section.io, I often was asked “What is a reverse proxy”? To be honest, I had actually googled the same question. I was familiar with proxies, but wasn’t entirely sure what the difference was between a proxy and a reverse proxy.

What is a web cache and what are the benefits of cached data?
Before we get into what exactly caching is, you need to understand why caching is important. Ultimately, the main benefit of caching is faster web pages. And faster web pages lead to a better user experience, which means happier website visitors. Multiple studies have shown that users visit more pages on a website when it loads faster.

A Study of how Magento Websites use SSL for HTTPS
Recently, section.io studied a random sample of around 330 websites running on Magento Enterprise, the leading eCommerce solution for large businesses.

What is a Content Delivery Network?
Currently, more than 50 percent of the Web’s traffic is being run through Content Delivery Networks. Most CDNs have similar basic features that provide improved website security, performance, and scalability, but some go about this in different ways than others, and some CDNs focus on one specific aspect of web optimization - for example, blocking bots and protecting against attacks. To help you negotiate the CDN landscape, here are five questions we think you should consider before investing in your next CDN.

Birth of the Term “CDN”
Nearly 20 years ago, Akamai launched the first content delivery network. They rocked the web world by distributing reverse proxy servers globally into a number of Points of Presence (PoPs) to act as content caches and ran a layer of DNS over the top to select the closest PoP to the user.

The importance of website performance is often overlooked, even though the Internet heavily influences many aspects of our daily lives. Over the past few months I have been investigating just how crucial and imperative optimal website performance is to the success of one’s company or organization.

Today marks my first day as a member of the section.io team and I couldn’t be more excited to dive into the world of CDNs, reverse proxies, varnish cache, and web application firewalls. I will also fully admit that almost all of these words were completely foreign to me before I discovered section.io a few weeks ago.

Greetings!
Today I joined the team at section.io, a new type of content delivery network aimed at helping developers and marketers increase the speed and security of their websites. I’ll be working on the content surrounding the section.io product to make sure that anyone who is interested in CDNs is able to easily understand what they are, how they work, and why web performance will improve when you utilize one.